Yamaha small car (two-seater) to launch in Europe by 2019

After unveiling a small car prototype, called MOTIV.e at 2013 Tokyo Motor Show, Yamaha has now divulged plans to manufacture and sell small cars.

Yamaha small car will be targeted at European markets.

Yamaha Motor President, Hiroyuki Yanagi, has told Nikkei that Yamaha small car debut is planned around 2019. The two-seater will be tuned to be efficient for urban commuting, as demand for compact forms of safe mobility expands aggressively on a global scale.

Yanagi said, “as the auto market grows more diverse, we see business opportunities”. The company is looking at an investment of tens of billions of yen, for developing the vehicle and establishing manufacturing facility. Location for production plant and estimation of annual capacity are yet to be determined. Only the first destination market is ascertained as of now, Europe, largely because of compatible city planning.

The world’s second largest two-wheeler maker will offer gasoline and electric versions of two-seater small car, for which it will develop a 1.0 litre engine in-house, and source electric motors and batteries from outside.

Yamaha is not new to developing car engines; it has supplied over 3 million engines to Toyota Motor during a Joint Venture inked in 1964. Even at present, Yamaha engines power some models belonging to Lexus.